Staying on an electrical theme for a bit - we often get asked whether it is OK to daisy chain power boards from one desk to another ?
We got advice on this and this is the conclusion (in simple terms).
Virtually all standard NZ power boards are 10 amp boards WITH overload protection. This is important because it means if the current being drawn exceeds 10 amps - the overload protection will trip and you will have to reset it with fewer devices on it.
So there is in-built safety there. That is what it's designed for.
Secondly, your PC and monitor set up will not draw much current on its own. I checked my monitor and it draws 1.3 amps. With the PC as well let's assume say 2.5 amps at max load (my laptop draws 1.4 amps).
So the wild card in this is when you add an electric height adjustable desk into the mix. It will draw (at max load) 4 amps and when idle virtually zero. BUT this is assuming it is lifting it's max load of 140 kgs and virtually none of the setups I have done exceed 20 kgs for the top plus 20 MAX for other items.
So if you are running two power boards into each other you can take the 2.5 amps from each computer (makes 5). You then have 5 amps left on the board you are feeding into.
Consider the likelihood that two desks are going to be lifting or dropping with a heavy load at the same time - very unlikely I'd say.
And in the unlikely event they trip the second board it just needs a reset and you are away again.
So I've done a lot of installs and my conclusion is that it's nearly always reliable to daisy chain 2 x 6 GPU multi-boards through each other with electric desks running on them to the wall outlet.
If you are running laptops only you can possibly daisy chain 3 desks although you run a risk of tripping the last board if all desks are being operated at max load simultaneously.
NOTE: This post was originally created in 2018. Since then power requirements for devices have gone down and we have been able to measure more accurately what modern devices ( desks, phones, monitors, laptops) draw in current. For a more up to date measurement go to our 2024 post on a similar theme.
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